Women, girls rape victims in Haiti quake aftermath

In this photo taken March 14, 2010, women wait to receive medical attention for them and their children outside the women's clinic run by the Jenkins-Penn Haiti Relief Operation, at the makeshift camp for earthquake survivors in the Petionville Golf Club in Port-au-Prince. Women, girls and children as young as 2 years old, already traumatized by the loss of homes and loved ones in Haiti's earthquake, now are falling victim to rapists in sprawling and unmanageable tent cities that have become home to hundreds of thousands of people. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)
— AP

In this photo taken March 14, 2010, women wait to receive medical attention for them and their children outside the women's clinic run by the Jenkins-Penn Haiti Relief Operation, at the makeshift camp for earthquake survivors in the Petionville Golf Club in Port-au-Prince. Women, girls and children as young as 2 years old, already traumatized by the loss of homes and loved ones in Haiti's earthquake, now are falling victim to rapists in sprawling and unmanageable tent cities that have become home to hundreds of thousands of people. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)
/ AP

In this photo taken March 14, 2010, a woman is carried on a stretcher to receive medical attention at the field hospital run by the Jenkins-Penn Haiti Relief Operation, led by US actor Sean Penn, at the makeshift camp for earthquake survivors in the Petionville Golf Club in Port-au-Prince. Women, girls and children as young as 2 years old, already traumatized by the loss of homes and loved ones in Haiti's earthquake, now are falling victim to rapists in sprawling and unmanageable tent cities that have become home to hundreds of thousands of people. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)— AP

In this photo taken March 14, 2010, a woman is carried on a stretcher to receive medical attention at the field hospital run by the Jenkins-Penn Haiti Relief Operation, led by US actor Sean Penn, at the makeshift camp for earthquake survivors in the Petionville Golf Club in Port-au-Prince. Women, girls and children as young as 2 years old, already traumatized by the loss of homes and loved ones in Haiti's earthquake, now are falling victim to rapists in sprawling and unmanageable tent cities that have become home to hundreds of thousands of people. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)
/ AP

In this photo taken March 14, 2010, two women walk toward the field hospital run by the Jenkins-Penn Haiti Relief Operation, as UN peacekeepers from Pakistan arrive to provide security for the visit of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, at the makeshift camp for earthquake survivors in the Petionville Golf Club in Port-au-Prince. Women, girls and children as young as 2 years old, already traumatized by the loss of homes and loved ones in Haiti's earthquake, now are falling victim to rapists in sprawling and unmanageable tent cities that have become home to hundreds of thousands of people. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)— AP

In this photo taken March 14, 2010, two women walk toward the field hospital run by the Jenkins-Penn Haiti Relief Operation, as UN peacekeepers from Pakistan arrive to provide security for the visit of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, at the makeshift camp for earthquake survivors in the Petionville Golf Club in Port-au-Prince. Women, girls and children as young as 2 years old, already traumatized by the loss of homes and loved ones in Haiti's earthquake, now are falling victim to rapists in sprawling and unmanageable tent cities that have become home to hundreds of thousands of people. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)
/ AP

In this photo taken March 12, 2010, a 21-year-old woman who doesn't want to be identified speaks with The Associated Press in Port-au-Prince. Women, girls and children as young as 2 years old, already traumatized by the loss of homes and loved ones in Haiti's earthquake, now are falling victim to rapists in sprawling and unmanageable tent cities that have become home to hundreds of thousands of people. "They grabbed me, put their hands over my mouth and then the three of them took turns", said the woman who was raped by three men while she went to use the toilet into the darkness of a makeshift tent camp. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)— AP

In this photo taken March 12, 2010, a 21-year-old woman who doesn't want to be identified speaks with The Associated Press in Port-au-Prince. Women, girls and children as young as 2 years old, already traumatized by the loss of homes and loved ones in Haiti's earthquake, now are falling victim to rapists in sprawling and unmanageable tent cities that have become home to hundreds of thousands of people. "They grabbed me, put their hands over my mouth and then the three of them took turns", said the woman who was raped by three men while she went to use the toilet into the darkness of a makeshift tent camp. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)
/ AP

In this photo taken March 14, 2010, Allison Thompson, a volunteer doctor from California, gives a present to a Haitian girl outside the field hospital run by the Jenkins-Penn Haiti Relief Operation, led by US actor Sean Penn, at the makeshift camp for earthquake survivors in the Petionville Golf Club in Port-au-Prince. Women, girls and children as young as 2 years old, already traumatized by the loss of homes and loved ones in Haiti's earthquake, now are falling victim to rapists in sprawling and unmanageable tent cities that have become home to hundreds of thousands of people. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)— AP

In this photo taken March 14, 2010, Allison Thompson, a volunteer doctor from California, gives a present to a Haitian girl outside the field hospital run by the Jenkins-Penn Haiti Relief Operation, led by US actor Sean Penn, at the makeshift camp for earthquake survivors in the Petionville Golf Club in Port-au-Prince. Women, girls and children as young as 2 years old, already traumatized by the loss of homes and loved ones in Haiti's earthquake, now are falling victim to rapists in sprawling and unmanageable tent cities that have become home to hundreds of thousands of people. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)
/ AP

A woman combs her hair outside her tent at a makeshift camp for earthquake survivors in Port-au-Prince, Tuesday, March 16, 2010. Women, girls and children as young as 2 years old, already traumatized by the loss of homes and loved ones in Haiti's earthquake, now are falling victim to rapists in sprawling and unmanageable tent cities that have become home to hundreds of thousands of people. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)— AP

A woman combs her hair outside her tent at a makeshift camp for earthquake survivors in Port-au-Prince, Tuesday, March 16, 2010. Women, girls and children as young as 2 years old, already traumatized by the loss of homes and loved ones in Haiti's earthquake, now are falling victim to rapists in sprawling and unmanageable tent cities that have become home to hundreds of thousands of people. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
/ AP

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti 
When the young woman needed to use the toilet, she went out into the darkened tent camp and was attacked by three men.

"They grabbed me, put their hands over my mouth and then the three of them took turns," the slender 21-year-old said, wriggling with discomfort as she nursed her baby girl, born three days before Haiti's devastating quake.

"I am so ashamed. We're scared people will find out and shun us," said the woman, who suffers from abdominal pain and itching, likely from an infection contracted during the attack.

Women and children as young as 2, already traumatized by the loss of homes and loved ones in the Jan. 12 catastrophe, are now falling victim to rapists in the sprawling tent cities that have become home to hundreds of thousands of people.

With no lighting and no security, they are menacing places after sunset. Sexual assaults are daily occurrences in the biggest camps, aid workers say - and most attacks go unreported because of the shame, social stigma and fear of reprisals from attackers.

Rape was a big problem in Haiti even before the earthquake and frequently was used as a political weapon in times of upheaval. Both times the first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was ousted, his enemies assassinated his male supporters and raped their wives and daughters.

But the quake that killed an estimated 200,000 people has made women and girls ever more vulnerable. They have lost their homes and are forced to sleep in flimsy tents or tarp-covered lean-tos. They've lost male protection with the deaths of husbands, brothers and sons. And they are living in close quarters with strangers.

The 21-year-old said her family has received no food aid because the Haitian men handing out coupons for food distribution demand sexual favors.

Sex-for-food is not uncommon in the camps, said a report issued Tuesday by the Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development in Haiti. "In particular, young girls have to negotiate sexually in order to get shelter from the rains and access to food aid."

At the camp on Monday where the young mother was gang-raped, a woman in shorts tried to bathe discreetly. Stripped to her waist, she faced her blue tarp tent, her back to the rows of other shelters.

Nearby, a teenage girl squatted behind a pile of garbage, trying to avoid the stench and clouds of flies around tarp-covered latrines that provide the only privacy, but also are places where women are attacked.

In this camp, some 47,000 people live crowded into what used to be a sports ground in a neighborhood that always has been dangerous. Residents include a dozen escaped prisoners, among them a man accused of a notorious murder, according to Fritznel Pierre, a human rights advocate who lives at the camp.

"But nobody says anything because they're scared, scared of the criminals and scared of the police," he said.

Pierre has documented three other gang rapes in the camp, including of a 17-year-old who says she was a virgin before six men attacked her and raped her repeatedly.